New Resources and Events

PostJanuary 11, 2012

The Learning Network is a place to talk about what is happening in the sustainability field and share new resources and upcoming events. View newly released resources, upcoming events and information to help incorporate environmentally, socially, healthy and economically sustainable practices into your work.

Have a resource or event you’d like to share? Please send questions and suggestions to sustainability@ca-ilg.org. We ask that events be relevant and accessible to our statewide California audience.

Related Links

Smart Growth America has partnered with the State Smart Transportation Initiative to develop The Innovative DOT. The handbook provides 34 recommendations to help transportation officials position their agencies for success in the new economy.

Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Governments was created by the Public Health Institute, the California Department of Public Health, and the American Public Health Association in response to growing interest in using collaborative approaches to improve population health by embedding health considerations into decision-making processes across a broad array of sectors.

“Dig, Eat & Be Healthy” is a guide that helps community groups and public agencies understand the opportunities to grow food on public properties- from vacant fields, school yards, rights-of-way and even rooftops of public buildings.

Communities in the U.S. can follow a relatively simple and low cost initial set of indicators to determine if their services meet the needs of an aging population. These indicators can be measured using information that is readily available and adaptable to local governments, providing a low-cost way for local governments to begin to examine the specific needs of their aging populations.

California State Parks, Office of Historic Preservation offers links, briefings and reports on how to integrate sustainability considerations into historic buildings retrofits. Resources include information on energy efficiency, implementing solar and other green building techniques for historic buildings.

In summer of 2012 Congress adopted an update to the federal transportation program known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st century, or MAP-21. While it stopped short of providing more robust funding or a sweeping vision for infrastructure the 21st century, MAP-21 makes significant changes to federal transportation policy that are critical to understand.

Watch this webinar recording hosted January 13, 2013 and featuring Keith Woodcock, Director of Community and Regional Planning Center at California State University, Fresno discussing strategies the City of Delano used to engage its community to improve health through community design.

This concise 14-page resource provides an overview of the connection between Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs and environmental health, a formula for estimating the environmental health impact of a program’s activities and examples of how real-life SRTS programs have estimated their environmental health impact.

The Public Health Institute’s Dialogue4Health initiative conducts regular web forums that invite multiple sectors together in conversation on topics that matter to health in its broadest sense. Past web forums have covered topics related to promoting active transportation in rural areas, improving school policies to promote more physical activity and a three part series on integrating health in our homes and built environments.

The APG provides a step-by-step process for local and regional climate vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategy development. Usage of the APG is meant to allow for flexibility in the commitment of time, money, and effort to suit the needs of the community.

This Guide provides an overview of climate change as an important health issue and presents ideas for integrating key public health issues into greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction strategies as they are addressed in the Climate Action Plan: Transportation, Land Use, Urban Greening, Food and Agriculture, Residential Energy Use, and Community Engagement and Vulnerable Populations.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) Urban Bikeway Design Guide provides cities with state-of-the-practice solutions that can help create complete streets that are safe and enjoyable for bicyclists. Designs in the Guide were written by cities, for cities, with the intent to help practitioners make good decisions about urban bikeway design.

The Model Design Manual for Livable Streets incorporates features that public works staff, planners, and other local officials can use to make streets lively, beautiful, economically vibrant, and environmentally sustainable.

The free manual, developed by the LA County Department of Public Health RENEW LA County Initiative, is available in PDF, Microsoft Word and InDesign formats, allowing cities and counties to customize the document for their own local context and insert it in their local manuals. (November 2011)

This paper looks at current public transportation infrastructure and identifies actions that government leaders can take to ensure that California maintains and expands it’s existing public transit system.